Opinion: Why we say 'Food is Medicine' - StarNewsOnline.com

We cognize that bully nutrition is captious for health. And we besides cognize that locally, 20% of our colonisation successful Wilmington faces nutrient insecurity, placing their entree to needed nutrition successful jeopardy. This is astir pronounced successful radical from neighborhoods historically deprived of resources similar market stores.

We spot this reflected successful our hospitals. One survey recovered that astir a 3rd of each patients acquisition nutritional diminution during infirmary stays. While malnutrition is simply a highly preventable condition, probe suggests patients who are already malnourished look a staggeringly 5 times higher probability of infirmary death, and are 56% much apt to beryllium readmitted to the infirmary wrong 30 days.

As a wellness system, we knew we needed to instrumentality contiguous enactment to adjacent gaps successful nutrient information and code malnutrition.

Our travel began successful 2016, erstwhile an interdisciplinary squad embarked connected a prime betterment travel to code malnutrition successful hospitalized patients successful Wilmington. We started by identifying gaps affecting the attraction of malnourished patients.

Today, the objective nutrition squad astatine Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center runs a afloat malnutrition modulation of attraction programme that is recognized arsenic champion signifier nationally. The programme includes broad and timely nutrition assessments and interventions, transportation with a nutrient container program, and in-home visits to patients who are malnourished aft they acquisition a infirmary stay.

Our assemblage outreach dietitian, Skip Allen, visits patients astatine location to behaviour afloat nutrition assessments and ensures patients person the enactment needed to travel their plans of care. He identifies immoderate barriers oregon needs and helps individuals link with assemblage resources, including the nutrient slope and meals connected wheels programs.

Since implementing these efforts, we person not lone accrued the diagnosis complaint of patients who look malnutrition, but we person besides helped link members of our assemblage to food. We intimately way our outcomes and are pleased to study reductions successful 30-day readmission rates of patients who are malnourished. These results amusement america that this programme is keeping radical retired of the hospital.

But the person we looked, we realized that much assemblage efforts were needed to code nutrient security, destruct nutrient deserts, and beforehand steadfast eating. Beyond the nutrient container initiative, we person developed much robust outpatient nutritional assessments and person developed a nutrient medicine program.

We are grateful that our Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center Foundation tin enactment partnerships to beforehand wellness equity successful our region. Working with Novant Health Community Engagement, our instauration has made important fiscal contributions to enactment bringing the Northside Food Co-op into beingness and to motorboat a caller nutrient marketplace astatine the caller Wilmington tract of the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, which is conscionable a fewer blocks from what volition go Wilmington’s archetypal Novant Health Michael Jordan Family Medical Clinic connected Greenfield Street.

These 2 efforts purpose to destruct longstanding nutrient deserts successful Wilmington’s Northside and Southside neighborhoods. Ultimately, we are partnering to alteration the full ecosystem for patients and assemblage members who are affected by malnutrition and nutrient insecurity.

Thanks to dedicated dietitians, philanthropic enactment and the engagement of a wide radical of partners, we are a exemplary for the state connected however to code malnutrition and nutrient insecurity. And the winners are our patients, who person benefited from our doctrine that nutrient is medicine.

Angela Lago, MS, RD, LDN is the Clinical Nutrition Manager for Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center. Philip M. Brown, Jr., MD is Novant Health’s Chief Community Impact Officer.